Teachers' Room
>
Lesson Library
>
Browse Library

Art

Beauty Beyond the Skin
With its evening gowns, celebrity judges and tears of joy, the beauty pageant in Nairobi was like others elsewhere, except for one thing - all 20 contestants who strutted, sashayed and swaggered down the catwalk had albinism. (Beauty, albinos, discrimination, Kenya.)Advanced

Scarecrow Town
Tsukimi Ayano made her first scarecrow 13 years ago. The straw scarecrow looked like her father, so she made more. Today, the tiny village of Nagoro is full of her scarecrows in houses, fields, trees, streets and at a bus stop. (Scarecrows, migration, families, apostrophe for possession.)Elementary

Easter Egg Surprises
A Fabergé Easter Egg made for Emperor Alexander 111 of Russia and lost for more than 100 years will be displayed in London. The egg was nearly melted for scrap, but an American scrap dealer realized what it was. (Russian Revolution, Fabergé eggs, writing questions, passive voice.)Pre-Intermediate

Child Stars
Three years after a popular TV talent show launched child soprano Jackie Evancho on a meteoric career, she still has no singing coach, can't read music and sticks to a modest rehearsal routine. As she makes the transition to professional artist, Evancho, is seeking to balance her school work - and play time - with a busy concert tour schedule and recording her sixth album. (Singing, Jackie Evancho, child stars.)Advanced

Tattoo Me Too!
Do the Obama daughters want tattoos? Probably not. Their father told "Today" show how the Obama parents are keeping their daughters away from tattoos. (Tattoos, different viewpoints on tattooing, first and second conditional)Pre-Intermediate

Balloon Dress
A dress made from balloons? Japanese balloon artist, Rie Hosokai, used 200 balloons for a dress. 35-year-old Hosokai used balloons for the mini-dress. (Dress design, do/does as an auxiliary, shopping for clothes dialogs and language, completing a table of information about clothes.)Elementary

Long Live The Book
India's booming publishing market is proof of the physical book's staying power, said participants at Asia's largest literary event, the DSC Jaipur Literary Festival. "You read something on Twitter and you know it is ephemeral," said Patrick French, a best-selling historian and biographer who has written extensively on Asia. "Yet the book is a solid thing. The book endures." (Future of books, printed books and e-books, reading habits of different nationalities, India.)Upper-Intermediate

Photos and Stamps
People in Japan can now put their face or favorite photo on a stamp. (Photos, stamps, new products, understanding the main idea, comprehension, jigsaw reading, reading and retelling, the verb 'take' and its meanings, reading clozes, 'Asking and Answering Yes / No Questions' game.)Elementary

Tattoo for the Doctor
An 85 year-old widow is so determined not to be resuscitated against her will by doctors that she has tattooed the words "Do Not Resuscitate" across her chest. (Rights of patients, tattoos, finding the main idea, vocabulary in context, information search, a, an or the, discussion, 'Who am I?' game, dialogue.)Pre-Intermediate

How To Spot The Hit
Picking the next worldwide hit song could soon be as easy as running a software program that is designed to spot the hits before they are released. (Hit songs, record companies, predicting using a headline, correcting mistakes, complete the information, writing questions, talking about music game, infinitive of purpose, role play.)Intermediate

You Can't Copy That!
A copyright dispute over two pieces of silence, one by American avant-garde composer John Cage and the other by a composer best known for novelty tunes, has been settled. (Plagiarism and copyright, music, scanning, guessing words in context, true or false, headlines, the expression: It was one of the most...I've ever..., discussion.)Upper-Intermediate

Dangerous Activities
It may look pretty, but ballet is more like a contact sport when it comes to injury. (Risk, Sport, ballet, injury, relative clauses)
Intermediate

An Expensive Piece of Paper
A woman in New York found a painting among some garbage bags worth around $1 million and a sheet of pinkish paper the size of a postcard was expected to be sold for more than 3-1/2 million pounds at an auction. (Paintings, art, Leonardo da Vinci, Rufino Tamayo, comparative and superlative adjectives, discussion, comprehension.)Elementary

Academy Rewards
Academy Award organizers have come up with a novel idea for avoiding those boring Oscar acceptance speeches filled with "thank yous." Their solution: have the winners give two speeches--a short one and a long one. (Academy Awards, speeches.)Intermediate